Daily Review 26/09/2017

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, September 26th, 2017 - 119 comments
Categories: Daily review - Tags:

Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

119 comments on “Daily Review 26/09/2017 ”

  1. adam 1

    Marcon is a anti worker scum bag. Only up side is he is showing us all that socialism is the only real alternative to this beige revolution.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/macron-labour-laws-reforms-new-france-union-protests-a7962141.html

  2. joe90 2

    The anti-(((globalist))) movement is global, apparently.

    /

    Farage says the election tomorrow is important for "the whole global movement"— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) September 26, 2017

  3. Pete 3

    Just saw bill English on the news after hearing him earlier on the radio.

    He was give us a categorical assurance the Winston Peters’ leak didn’t come from his lot.

    Yes Bill, we hear you, and we all know how honest you are.

    • ianmac 3.1

      Exactly Pete. It an honest world English would be punished for lying.
      A brave journalist would say, “Since you lied about the Hole and about Tax hikes why would anyone believe a word you said Mr PM?”

    • Ed 3.2

      And the media go on about the Nat’s ‘moral authority’ without a trace of irony.

    • Cinny 3.3

      But, but .. I take people at their word, no one ever lies to me, I’m a very important caretaker – sarc as

    • mickysavage 3.4

      Yep the news was not leaked. The media had a really good guess or maybe the news came to them in a dream. Nothing to see here. Ministers who are the biggest gossips in the country did not tell anyone else. Move on nothing to see.

      • Pete 3.4.1

        Great guessing skills too what with the $18,000 punt.

      • Anne 3.4.2

        Exactly. Since that scandal erupted, I have noticed a caginess from all the main political suspects. Six weeks out from an election and you can’t tell me the ministers involved managed to resist the temptation to gossip outside of the inner circle. Of course they did.

        The anonymous caller to Newsroom was apparently a man and according to an article I read online this morning (can’t remember where it was) he was “well informed”.

        Has anyone had the call traced? It might lead to nowhere but you would think someone would have tried.

        Btw, where’s Jason Ede?

  4. katipo 4

    With all the Nats & Greens getting together conjecture and folks saying how they can do it in Germany, it’s interesting to see where our respective Green Parties sit in on the political compass…
    In NZ…
    https://www.politicalcompass.org/nz2017
    and in Germany..
    https://www.politicalcompass.org/germany2017

    • Grey Area 4.1

      A different shade of green maybe?

    • boggis the cat 4.2

      NZ First is further left than Labour? I find that dubious. TOP also isn’t neoliberal, in my view.

      Political parties are complex, so it is difficult to place them at some point on such a chart. Perhaps it would make more sense to draw a region where the policies more or less fit — some parties are focused, while others have divergent ideas.

      • Barfly 4.2.1

        Economically further left

        • boggis the cat 4.2.1.1

          Because they oppose TPPA?

          I think people are confusing Muldoon style protectionism with economics more typical of the left. The clue is in the party name, really.

          • McFlock 4.2.1.1.1

            Norman Kirk-style, as well.

            But when you look at policies like what NZ1 even did with National from 1996, and compare it with Clark’s Labour, it’s definitely an arguable position. Things like free GP visits for <4 year olds and the super goldcard.

            Especially when things like kiwirail and kiwibank were Alliance policies.

            On the flipside, NZ1 has strong social conservatism themes and tolerated Prosser's statements (well, until he started talking tactics and renationalisation, lol).

  5. Foreign waka 5

    And the blackmailers are out in force, from checkbooks being put away to concerns about the effect on the economy – the news are drumming up the beat in big letters everywhere. Just so that we all have a moment of angst so that we duly say hurray when National is selected to govern.
    The longer these negotiations go the more pity I have for the party being the final winner(s). Why? Because in a few weeks time those hysterical soothsayers will have talked NZ economy into a severe downturn. Let Mr English get this round because with his friends fanning the fire it will be his last hurray and Mrs Ardern has time to really get her ducks into a row. Mr Peters by association will be gone too (I am 100% sure he will go with Nat) and Bob is your Uncle.

    • mpledger 5.1

      Last time Winston Peters held the balance of power and kept everyone waiting, business ticked along without a bat of an eyelid.

      The more politicians can stay out of business (even if it’s just being caught up in their own affairs), the more businesses like it.

  6. Ed 6

    Utu.
    Best served cold.

    ‘Winston Peters could be out for revenge against National over their attempts to take him down during the campaign.
    A New Zealand First source has told Newshub Peters is particularly resentful towards Steven Joyce, whom he personally detests.

    The Newshub tip-off

    The tip was given to Newshub on the Friday six weeks out from the election just as National was undertaking its co-ordinated attack on Winston Peters.
    It was an anonymous phone call, from a blocked number, from a man who knew lots of details.
    It could have been a public servant.
    But investigations by the Ministry of Social Development, Inland Revenue and Ministerial Services, which manages staff in the Beehive, have all failed to find the leaker.
    That leaves a senior crew as suspects – two ministers, Anne Tolley and Paula Bennett, as well as the Prime Minister’s chief-of-staff Wayne Eagleson.’

    Lots more here……

    http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/09/patrick-gower-winston-peters-wants-utu-from-steven-joyce.html

    • Ed 6.1

      More here…

      ‘Video footage has emerged of Winston Peters making a scathing attack on Bill English and a number of other MPs – saying they have created an unstable government that has exacerbated poverty.’

      http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11926450

    • BM 6.2

      The media seems intent on trying to sink any chance of a Lab/Green/NZ First coalition.

      • Ed 6.2.1

        The Nats tried and failed to take out New Zealand First.
        Joyce is a piece of work.
        The media are simply reporting facts.
        Got a problem with that?

        • BM 6.2.1.1

          Peters hates the media, they’re trying to manipulate him into going with Labour and the Greens.

          • Ed 6.2.1.1.1

            So the dirty politics reported is a fiction?

            • BM 6.2.1.1.1.1

              Probably, media just make up shit they have no credibility.

              • Ed

                So this is a lie?

                ‘The tip was given to Newshub on the Friday six weeks out from the election just as National was undertaking its co-ordinated attack on Winston Peters.
                It was an anonymous phone call, from a blocked number, from a man who knew lots of details.
                It could have been a public servant.
                But investigations by the Ministry of Social Development, Inland Revenue and Ministerial Services, which manages staff in the Beehive, have all failed to find the leaker.
                That leaves a senior crew as suspects – two ministers, Anne Tolley and Paula Bennett, as well as the Prime Minister’s chief-of-staff Wayne Eagleson.

                • BM

                  ‘The tip was given to Newshub on the Friday six weeks out from the election just as National was undertaking its co-ordinated attack on Winston Peters.

                  Utter bullshit and fake news, there was no co-ordinated attack on Winston Peters. going on, the whole thing appeared out of nowhere.

                  Fuck the media, they’re a fucking joke, they have no credibility.

                  • Ed

                    Sounds like you may be correct.

                    ‘New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has lashed out at a media report tonight alleging he was out for “utu” against the National Party.

                    The report on Newshub said National launched a “four-pronged attack” on Peters – and now the kingmaker was out for revenge.

                    Newshub political editor Patrick Gower claimed his source was a New Zealand First party insider.

                    However, Peters hit back quickly, saying “whatever Patrick Gower and the Newshub producers are on, they should get off it”.

                    “Their TV news broadcasts the last two nights have been fiction, and grossly misleading. I will not be explaining what parts are fictional. Some of it is barefaced lies.

                    “This news broadcaster is claiming sources that don’t exist. It’s the very worst form of journalism,” he said.

                    • alwyn

                      “Newshub political editor Patrick Gower claimed his source was a New Zealand First party insider”.
                      I will no doubt be considered as being excessively cynical but I have always thought that the leak was from the ultimate “New Zealand First insider”.
                      I think it came from Winston himself. Probably one of his acolytes as his own voice is far too whisky hardened and recognisable to dare make the call himself.
                      I suspect he thought it would get him some welcome publicity when he was being ignored by all the reporters.
                      He would stand out in contrast to Turei as someone who had immediately repaid the money and could make a plausible case that it was an accident.
                      I notice he still won’t release the original application he put in though. Now if that ever genuinely leaked it might be explosive.

                    • Ed

                      I really doubt that.

                  • Fuck the media, they’re a fucking joke, they have no credibility.

                    They certainly did a very poor job of exposing National’s lies during the election campaign. However, the liars have even less credibility than the people who failed to expose their lies, so, on the whole, I’d take journos’ word for it over National’s.

              • NewsFlash

                BM

                ” just make up shit they have no credibility.” This is surely an accurate description of your beloved Party

          • Pete 6.2.1.1.2

            They’re not trying to manipulate him. They have no hope of doing that.

            • BM 6.2.1.1.2.1

              So they’re trolling him then? again bad for the left.

              • One Anonymous Bloke

                The sun comes up in the morning.

                BM: “That’s bad for the Left.”

                • yep – oh dear rain – bad for the left that one says BM sagely

                • Robert Guyton

                  BM’s right hand makes “scissors”, his left chooses “paper”. Next up, right plays “rock”, BM’s left tries “scissors”. In a final effort BM’s left hand goes first, plumps for “paper”, only to be met by the right hand’s elegant “scissor”!!; is it any wonder BM’s a bit jaded about the left???

    • Cinny 6.3

      Maybe Paddy should have added that Winston detests the media the most, especially when they spin shite.

      • Ed 6.3.1

        I hope that he reforms the media when in power.

        • Cinny 6.3.1.1

          + infinity and beyond

        • Grey Area 6.3.1.2

          That would be good to see but I think we’ll need a seismic shift in the whole political system before we can hope for an independent media. Or at least some form of transparency so they can be seen for what they are, mostly fanboys and girls for neoliberalism and underminers of democracy.

          I pine though for a NZ media and commentariat free from Hosking, Williams, Garner, Richardson, Gower, Young, Trevett, Armstrong, Watkins, HDP, Hooten, Boag, …… The roll of dishonour is long and undistinguished.

          • alwyn 6.3.1.2.1

            Would you regard it as acceptable if a right-wing Government should be allowed to shut down news sites like this one? I certainly hope not.
            I suppose you would only silence people you don’t like.

            • weka 6.3.1.2.1.1

              Who said anything about shutting down blogs? I think that’s your authoritarian imagination running away with itself there.

            • Ed 6.3.1.2.1.2

              Nationalising the airwaves and restoring the commons, taking them back from corporations.
              Setting them up for grassroots local organisations.
              Thereby organising a democratic media, not one run for big business interests.

            • boggis the cat 6.3.1.2.1.3

              Those with more money should not have a louder voice.

          • Cinny 6.3.1.2.2

            Am sick of the gossipy news, we can find that in the womans day, facebook, entertainment websites or whatever, I just want decent credible journalism, that is investigated rather than perpetuated gossip all over the telly, in the printed media and on their websites, click bait gossip central. Opinions on politics from sports presenters, sick of that shite.

            And the real kicker is, as soon as we have some decent investigated journalism, it’s slammed. Like JC going off air etc.

            I am grateful for my weekly dose of international media scruitney, via The Listening Post.

          • JC 6.3.1.2.3

            Grey .. Fortunately now there are others beyond the dishonoured, and undistinguished …

            Their time may well come, but at least there are alternatives!

            https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@boardroom/2017/09/26/49345/productivity-growth-still-missing-in-action

  7. Carolyn_nth 7

    OK lefites – this is a BIG warning sign not to jump on the Nat-Green alliance band wagon.

    Jane Clifton tweeted that, with respect to the floated Nat-Green alliance:

    Plus some people are actually being paid to shop this scenario around.

    For using media gigs/ social media to promote the Nst+Green scenario

    & it had to be seeded by paid chum because no one with knowledge of Green attitudes/constitution wd even mention NatGr as a possibility

    This floated scenario is not in the Lab-Green interest.

    It’s in the Nat’s interest to have another party to play off against NZ First.

    • mickysavage 7.1

      Yep. If only the left had the resources to have people run disruption lines in the media …

      • weka 7.1.1

        We could organise instead, just saying .

        • weka 7.1.1.1

          Here we are post-election getting our attention and energy taken up by another round of bullshit. (have to say Clifton’s joining the dots is useful though). Maybe it’s just me feeling overloaded with things to push back against and still the left is just not that willing to work together (although parts of it do obviously).

          • Incognito 7.1.1.1.1

            I’m in the middle of writing a Guest Post about the Green Party and all the BS that blows around. I hope you will like it enough to post it here when it is finished 😉

    • BM 7.2

      More fake news don’t be so gullible.

      • weka 7.2.1

        Don’t troll.

        • BM 7.2.1.2

          I’m not trolling there’s a large chunk of National voters who’d prefer the Greens to Peters if that option was on the table.

          Personally, I’d prefer the Greens, Peters is a yesterday’s man, his time has pretty much been and gone,

          But if Peters is the only option, then Peters it is.

          • ScottGN 7.2.1.2.1

            There’s also a large chunk of Green voters who would probably consider that option the worst outcome they could imagine.

          • weka 7.2.1.2.2

            So? That has nothing to do with what Carolyn posted, or what Jane Clifton tweeted. I see no reason to disbelieve her and the fact that there are a bunch of National voters who want their conscience’s salved over the environment, or who just can’t stand Peters doesn’t change that.

            Basically all you are doing is saying you want National to have as much power as possible. No shit. Just be honest about it.

          • Stuart Munro 7.2.1.2.3

            The world does not revolve around the whims of Gnat voters.

            Gnats’ve had power for 9 years – if they’d done a halfway decent job they’d have an outright majority.

          • Cinny 7.2.1.2.4

            BM, Maybe that large chunk of national voters should have voted for the Greens if they really care about the environment. Rather than wanting the Greens with national because all they really care about is national holding power.

            • Robert Guyton 7.2.1.2.4.1

              Given that National voters are actually environmentalists, especially the farmers. We are told.

            • Ed 7.2.1.2.4.2

              Yes National’s policies over the past 9 years have really prioritised the environment. Our waterways are pristine, we are reducing the cow herd to tackle climate change, we are spending much more on DOC to protect our wilderness areas…..

          • swordfish 7.2.1.2.5

            there’s a large chunk of National voters who’d prefer the Greens to Peters if that option was on the table.

            I’d say a pretty small minority of Nats – based on Polling over recent years

            In 2014 for instance National voters preferred the Conservatives as Coalition Partners (54% Reid Research 47% DigiPoll) followed by NZF (36% RR 38% DP) with the Greens way back

            Doubt things have changed much

            More to the point an overwhelming majority of Green voters prefer a Labour Coalition partner

      • ScottGN 7.2.2

        Fake news from Jane Clifton?

    • Grey Area 7.3

      I was going to post something last night after I heard Bolger on Checkpoint have a sly little dig that the Greens should consider going with National because there is no left or right when it came to the environment and advising JC to “watch that space”.

      I thought maybe he was just being mischievous but then I noted all the other places this suggestion had popped up over recent days. I wondered if the whole thing was deliberate and being managed.

      In many cases I thought the people suggesting it being a real option should have known better, particularly when any such coalition would need to ratified by 75% of Green Party members. So I thought they were either ill-informed, mischievous or worse.

    • Pat 7.4

      Hooten has been pushing this barrel for some time now…that should be reason enough to dismiss it out of hand

  8. Kat 8

    Its “utu” time according to Mr Paddy Gower……….Mike, all over in a minute, Hosking declares NZ First holding country to ransom…………… the media are in a spin.

    Oh for the sounds of silence after the ensuing media death rattle.

    • weka 8.1

      Paddy Gower is a fuckwit. He misuses his power to manipulate NZ politics. He does it during elections, and it’s what he’s doing this week too.

      • Robert Guyton 8.1.1

        Hi weka – what do you mean when you say Gower is manipulating NZ politics “now”. Surely the elections been had and voters no longer have any influence. Surely Gower can only ever influence voters, rather than politicians? Is Peters’ decision likely to be guided by Gower’s effusions?

        • weka 8.1.1.1

          Lol, exactly.

          Dirty Politics got normalised at the last election, they don’t even need a special hit team now.

        • Kat 8.1.1.2

          Robert, I suspect Mr Gower is pushing the line “you heard it here first” and that he is “privy” to “inside” information from “powerful” informants who call up on “blocked” phone numbers “telling all”.

          The media in this country are being exposed for the poor little sycophants they are. Sadly a fair number of a certain 46% buy into it.

          • Robert Guyton 8.1.1.2.1

            I guess, Kat, but I don’t see how anything Gower says will influence the formation of the new Government. He can cant all he wishes but Winston will make his own call.

            • Kat 8.1.1.2.1.1

              He wants to up his ratings though and he may have some delusional fog similar to Hosking that what he says certain politicians may actually listen too. Since Key left there is an apparent vacuum between the media and politicians generally.

              Although having said that Jacinda seems to have the measure of all of them, which is fascinating to observe.

  9. The Chairman 9

    Good to see businesses taking the initiative and adapting.

    Kiwi businesses commit to ‘no qualifications required’ hiring
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/97253320

    • alwyn 9.1

      They are being kind. There are a bunch of former Green MPs who will be looking for work.

      • Grey Area 9.1.1

        Troll alert!

        • weka 9.1.1.1

          Joke’s on him when you consider that Russell Norman went on to head Greenpeace and Kevin Hague heads Forest and Bird, two of the most effective progressive lobbying/activist groups we have in NZ now. I’m betting the Greens shedding some MPs just seeded some more great activism.

          • ScottGN 9.1.1.1.1

            Absolutely weka. Kevin Hague is dong a sensational job at F & B, not least because it has stepped up to do some of the work that DoC has long since given up on.

          • alwyn 9.1.1.1.2

            I had a great admiration for Kevin Hague. He stood for what I thought a Green Party should be. When he didn’t win the leadership position I was greatly surprised, and disappointed.
            He had also done something before he entered Parliament. He wasn’t just one of the career Pol Sci idiots who haven’t actually done anything in the real world. I’ll admit they are mostly in the Labour Party, rather than the Greens of course.
            Russel Norman? Forget it. He hasn’t changed since he left Parliament. Look at the story this Blog covered where he tried to smear the Government just before Election Day.
            https://thestandard.org.nz/the-missing-story-on-collins-and-the-fuel-pipe-fiasco/#comment-1389665
            How is his Court case going by the way? I wonder if Greenpeace will pay the fine?

            I realise that Gareth Hughes is still in Parliament. However were he not, and it was quite close to happening, what would he do to support his family?
            Go on a benefit?
            The only thing I have seen him do, apart from being a joke as an MP was to dress up in a Star Trek uniform and pretend he was fighting the Klingons, or to have somewhat earlier been a stand-in in for Ronald McDonald. Has he done anything that has been useful to the world?

      • The Chairman 9.1.2

        @alwyn

        Cheeky bugger.

      • Robert Guyton 9.1.3

        Alwyn – that’s funny!

  10. Robert Guyton 10

    To whomsoever it may concern:

    “I have heard myself called a pessimist, and perhaps I have written some words of ill omen in my books … and perhaps I have spoken tonight some words of ill omen – but they are not words of despair. If we conjecture the decline and fall of this civilisation, it is because we hope for a better one. We are a tough race, we human beings; we have lived through an ice age and many ages of barbarism; we can live through this age of civilisation; and when at length it wears out and crumbles under us, we can “plot our agony of resurrection” and make a new age. Our business is to live. To live through… anything. And to keep alive, through everything, our ideal values, of freedom and courage, and mercy and tolerance.”

    http://dark-mountain.net/blog/coming-down-the-mountain-a-farewell/

  11. Pat 11

    apparently more voted for National as they are perceived as superior managers of the economy…..perception is not reality.

    “To sum up, New Zealand has lagged a bit behind the median advanced country since 2007/08, and has had no productivity growth at all for the last five years. We continue to drift further behind our closest neighbour, Australia, and now face the likelihood that before too long we’ll be overtaken by countries that, throughout modern history, were never previously as productive as New Zealand was, and which 30 years ago we’d have looked on as pretty hopeless cases.”

    https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/09/26/49345/productivity-growth-still-missing-in-action

  12. Molly 12

    … what was that tune National was in court for using during the last election campaign…?

    The researchers at New York University named Eminen’s Lose Yourself and Backstreet’s No Diggity as two favourites amongst those with the highest psychopath scores, The Guardian reports…

    …“You don’t want to have these people in positions where they can cause a lot of harm,” he added. “We need a tool to identify them without their cooperation or consent.”

    (Been AFK from a couple of days before election, and trying to catch up)

  13. Ed 13

    Prime Minister of hurricane-hit Dominica: “To deny climate change is to deny a truth we have just lived”

    • RedLogix 13.1

      I’ve been looking closely at the astounding destruction. What stuns me is how anyone survived at all. And pictures of yachts in known hurricane holes that are usually safe, just piled up over each other in tangled wrecks.

      Cat 5’s used to be a once in a generation event; now we get several every year. Irma sustained winds over 270 km/hr for more than 24 hrs … that’s a grim statistic which bodes very ill for any nation within striking reach of these monsters.

      • lprent 13.1.1

        An unusual convergence for the weather this time which hopefully won’t get repeated for at least 5 years.

        But it will repeat. In the hurricane and typhoon areas it has been obvious for decades that with more energy, higher heat differentials, and above all else the ability to hoist more water into the atmosphere from climate change that there would be more intense storms rather than just more storms in those latitudes. Just as in our latitudes we’re going to get weather patterns lasting long and going further north from the pole and south from the sub-tropics.

  14. joe90 14

    Booth by booth – provincial South Taranaki lumps Whanganui city with National and their idiot.

    http://www.electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2017_preliminary/statistics/pdf/62_ElectionDay.pdf

  15. lprent 15

    Had to knock TeWhareWhero off the rss feed for badly formed feed for the second time in as many months. It was breaking the display off all the other sources in their latest post “The Neo-Libs’ Charter”

    It can stay off now unless it gets fixed and I can be assured I don’t have to fix it another time.

  16. lprent 16

    Hmmm https://publicaddress.net website is offline

    Someone with an email and or twitter to russell brown might like to tell him. I’m not sure that I have that stashed.

  17. Exkiwiforces 17

    What an amazing election we had on the weekend! Can’t wait for the special votes to come in and be confirmed on the 7th October (Am I correct with that date). I have enjoyed reading some the threads and once I pull my out my digit out my ass I’ll comment on a few things like the Nelson electorate which in my view Labour can win. It good to see Chris Carter pop in for his take of the Auckland seats and how to fix the problem there in regards to the various ethnic groups in NZ.

    Anyway I thought I’ll post this from the ABC about our record breaking temperatures over here in Oz ATM. In the southern states it’s dryer than a pub with no beer and up here in the top end a very early build up which is slowly driving everyone bat shit crazy ATM with a lot of fires in between a lot of drinking with all bugger all else getting done because it too bloody hot to do anything else.

    Here’s the ABC link:
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-26/bom-records-will-fall-as-eastern-australia-braces-for-heatwave/8988650

    • RedLogix 17.1

      Here in Ballarat it’s been a long cold wet winter. 0 deg this morning and the heat pump is on again this evening. Crazy country.

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